BUSINESS/SUPREME COURT: “Technology companies will square off with law enforcement on Tuesday [2-27-18] as the Supreme Court hears arguments on whether emails and other customer data stored overseas are subject to U.S. search warrants. The case is one of several legal battles on law-enforcement access to private online data, and it requires the justices to interpret a law that Congress wrote before email and cloud computing were part of everyday life.
A federal appeals court, in a 2016 case involving Microsoft Corp. , handed a blow to prosecutors by ruling that such warrants can’t be enforced on U.S. providers if the data is stored exclusively on foreign servers. That is the decision the Supreme Court is reviewing. The case highlights broader tensions between tech titans, which view protecting user privacy as a priority, and authorities who believe privacy concerns should take a back seat to public safety in certain circumstances.
Battle lines have been firmly drawn, with opposing camps warning of serious harm if the court rules against their position.
The Justice Department and state attorneys general say the lower court ruling has hampered investigations into an array of crimes, from narcotics trafficking to arson to child pornography. Emails and electronic evidence are now critical to virtually every criminal investigation, they say.
Microsoft, Google and other technology companies say the Justice Department’s position would leave them stuck between U.S. law enforcement and their obligation to abide by privacy laws in foreign jurisdictions. The companies also say the case could threaten American dominance in the $250 billion cloud-computing industry, because foreign clients won’t use U.S. firms if their data isn’t protected.”
–Brent Kendall and Nicole Hong, “Supreme Court to Hear Microsoft Case on Emails, Customer Data Stored Overseas,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 26, 2018 05:30am